Report: NBA Encourages Teams to Hire Women, Improve Harassment Reporting in Memo

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reportedly sent a memo to all 30 teams "strongly" suggesting workplace reforms, highlighted by increasing the number of women hired by the organizations and improvements to how harassment allegations are handled. 

On Friday, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported Silver's letter and provided further details about his requests to the league's front-office executives:

Word of the memo comes two days after the NBA announced findings from an investigation into the Dallas Mavericks organization following a February report from Sports Illustrated that alleged the Mavs fostered a "corporate culture rife with misogyny and predatory sexual behavior."

"The investigators concluded that Mavericks' management was ineffective, including a lack of compliance and internal controls, and that these shortcomings permitted the growth of an environment in which acts of misconduct and the individuals who committed them could flourish," the NBA said in its statement.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban agreed to donate $10 million to "organizations that are committed to supporting the leadership and development of women in the sports industry and combating domestic violence" as a result of the NBA's findings.

"First, just an apology to the women involved," Cuban told ESPN's Rachel Nichols. "... This is not something that just is an incident and then it's over. It stays with people. It stays with families. And I'm just sorry I didn't see it. I'm just sorry I didn't recognize it."

In June, Steve Reed of the Associated Press noted a report from Richard Lapchick of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport gave the NBA an A+ for its racial hiring practices and a B for its gender hiring practices. The NBA's overall grade of A was the best of the major American sports leagues.

Silver's memo focuses on actions teams can take to continue to improve the league's diversity in the future.